The Andy Warhol Diaries (2022) s01e05 Episode Script
15 Minutes
1
[atmospheric synth music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
The day started off with dread as I woke up from my dreams and thought about my live appearance for Commodore computers.
And how nothing is worth all this worrying, to wake up and feel so terrified.
Commodore wants me to be a spokesman.
It's a $3,000 machine that's like the Apple thing, but can do 100 times more.
[synth music continues.]
[applause.]
- [Debbie Harry.]
Are you ready to paint me? - [Andy.]
Yeah.
[man.]
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here tonight to help Andy do his first computer portrait.
What computers have you worked on before? [Andy.]
I haven't worked on anything.
I waited for this one.
- Really? - [audience laughs.]
[AI Andy.]
The whole day was spent being nervous and telling myself that if I could just get good at stuff like this, then I could make money that way, and I wouldn't have to paint.
[man.]
Andy is selecting from the menu bar which gives you all the features of the paint system.
[Andy.]
We'll do the hair, then I go up to color [AI Andy.]
The drawing came out terrible.
And I called it a masterpiece.
[Andy.]
This is kind of pretty.
I think I'll keep it.
- [laughter.]
- [man.]
Okay.
- [Andy.]
Oh, it's beautiful.
- [man.]
Mm.
[AI Andy.]
It was a real mess.
I said I wanted to be Walt Disney and that if I'd had this machine ten years ago, I could have made it.
[man.]
You've found it to be very spontaneous, haven't you? [Andy.]
Yeah, it's great.
It's such a great thing.
[audience laughs.]
[AI Andy.]
And the news is full of Rock Hudson having AIDS in Paris.
[TV presenter.]
As we said earlier, actor Rock Hudson has AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Groups like the National Gay Task Force are hoping the actor's high visibility will promote new understanding of this disease.
[AI Andy.]
And now I guess people will finally believe Rock Hudson's gay.
When you'd tell them before, they wouldn't believe it.
There are some men who just, uh, well, they're very devoted to their mothers, you know the type that likes to, uh, collect cooking recipes or exchange bits of gossip.
Ooh, what a vicious thing to say.
[AI Andy.]
The Enquirer and Star and People and Newsweek and Time all had Rock Hudson on the cover.
[soft harp music playing.]
We should have had him on Interview's cover.
It would have been funny to have a phony baloney interview with him on all the newsstands now.
"'Why I'm straight, ' by Rock Hudson.
" [opening music: "Nature Boy" by Nat King Cole.]
There was a boy A very strange enchanted boy They say he wandered very far Very far Over land and sea A little shy And sad of eye But very wise Was he The greatest thing You'll ever learn Is just to love And be loved In return [soft bagpipe music playing.]
[Jeffrey Deitch.]
Andy Warhol's greatest work of art is Andy Warhol.
The way he constructs his persona.
He is an early example of artist as art.
You could put Gertrude Stein in that category, Salvador DalÃ, Oscar Wilde, to musicians That then vastly expands into TikTok stars and YouTube stars, where it's a kind of degraded version of artist as art.
[chatter.]
And Andy Warhol is a model for this.
Ladies and gentlemen, certainly a man who needs no introduction.
Have you ever seen such total bedlam and pandemonium in your entire life? Never.
It's anybody's guess how self-aware Andy was.
[TV presenter 2.]
Four of the top ten cable shows in America are wrestling shows.
[Patrick Moore.]
How much he did things for money.
It was a big enterprise he was running.
He had to keep the money coming in.
[speaking Japanese.]
Just for the taste of it Diet Coke [Patrick Moore.]
Warhol was the first artist who put himself in every area of mass media.
[soft piano music playing.]
But then also there might have been this other part that was, "I want to be able to be accepted in the broad mainstream media.
" It's a sort of plaintive cry for acceptance I think.
[AI Andy.]
Vincent worked things out with the Saturday Night Live people.
The deal is we're going to get $3,000 for the first week's segment, and, if that goes well, we'll do more.
[crunching into an apple.]
In In the first place, I never thought I'd ever be on Saturday Night Live, because I hate the show.
[AI Andy.]
I'm scared about this Saturday Night Live thing.
Jon thinks I shouldn't do it, because if it's bad, so many people will see it.
So I'm hoping they don't use it after all.
We did our lines, and I was terrible.
Really, really peculiar.
I don't think it's funny.
[punching numbers into a telephone.]
- Hello? - Oh, hi Calvin.
Oh gee, what are you wearing tonight? - Tonight I'm wearing - Oh gee, that's great.
[AI Andy.]
Called Vincent to see if he'd heard anything about Saturday Night Live, and he said that yes, they were going to use it, that they were really happy with it.
[Andy.]
I really like my costume.
I really like my costume.
Have a good time at the parties.
[AI Andy.]
So many people must see Saturday Night Live, because instead of people on the street saying, "There's Andy Warhol, the artist," I heard, "There's Andy Warhol from Saturday Night Live.
" I am surprised.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
I think Warhol never felt fully accepted, and he's repeating that back in the Diaries as like, he's too different and he's too queer for Middle America.
[soft lounge music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
The Love Boat writers are working on my episode.
[lounge music becomes choral music.]
And I started to get scared.
I don't know if I can go through with it.
One of the lines I have to say is something like, "Art is crass commercialism," which I don't want to say.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
The Love Boat was a stupid show.
It's a dumb show.
But just the fact that he was on it, it was like making yourself part of the pop art culture as a performance.
That is like a really fun way to infiltrate mainstream.
[The Love Boat theme music playing.]
We're expecting you The Love Boat [audience laughter.]
Mary tells me you want to paint her picture.
Well, that's impossible.
It's nothing personal, Mr.
Warhol, it's just that we come from two different worlds.
[soft dreamy music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
Pat met me there.
And we sat in the dressing room for a couple of hours, while they rearranged the lights.
My Stephen Sprouse jackets were there on the wardrobe rack.
[suspenseful music playing.]
Hi, Marina.
[audience laughs.]
[suspenseful music playing.]
[camera clicks and whirs.]
Stephen's clothes were like '60s redux but with new energy that Stephen put in it.
I think you should respect the general public's intelligence and give 'em more.
I don't think people get credit for being as bright as they are.
And the more new and wild stuff, I think there are more people that want it than actually can get it.
[AI Andy.]
And when I wear my Stephen Sprouse jackets, I think I finally look like people want Andy Warhol to look again.
[dreamy music continues.]
[George Hammond.]
No way a wife of mine is gonna have her picture painted by that New York flakeball.
And how are you gonna explain this to our son, huh? Your reputation will be ruined! [swooshing rises and falls.]
[soft piano music playing.]
[Jessica Beck.]
He always wanted to be at the center somehow, in this fantasy world of fame and of notoriety and acceptance.
But he also wanted to be the center of the art world.
It's like he wanted too much, maybe.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm flexible.
I mean, I could even go for something like that.
If you could do that sort of thing, it'd be a different story.
Well, that's mine.
[soft piano music continues.]
[AI Andy.]
Fred called me, really mad.
He said, how could Paige and Vincent and I have put an ad for Andy Warhol portraits in the Neiman-Marcus catalog? He was so mad, saying how tacky it was.
I just said life was too short to get so upset about a stupid mistake.
[soft piano music continues.]
[Kenny Scharf.]
There was a certain aspect of Andy's, and I remember Keith as well, which was celebrity and glam, it's glitzy, the facade.
So it's like, you're a little bit satirizing it, but not completely.
So, there's a part of you that actually is going for it.
[TV Presenter 3.]
Warhol, a fellow Pennsylvanian, has certainly influenced Haring's artistic and commercial sensibilities.
But the artist seems far more concerned with fame than fortune.
More than the 15 minutes of fame his friend Andy Warhol once said everyone would get.
[MTV VMA presenter.]
Live, it's the second annual MTV Video Music Awards.
And now, ladies and [AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel called and said he was invited to the MTV Awards thing.
Keith called, same thing.
So hot you're cool so cool you're hot Show me my favorite beauty spot Tie me up [AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel arrived in a limo.
He said he didn't want to go with Keith because Keith was too pushy.
Keith just wanted to be photographed so badly.
And he wanted to go with me, so he'd be sure to be photographed.
So we got to Radio City, and it was just the biggest mob there.
["Hot You're Cool" by General Public continues and fades.]
But the TV cameras had already left, so Keith was really upset.
I mean, I like Keith, but it was so sick.
[applause.]
Then it was over.
[soft piano music playing.]
These music videos, they're all like '60s underground movies.
People running around.
Like Stan Brakhage and all those kids used to make.
TV is much more exciting.
You know, with all the cable television in New York, there's like you turn on your TV and there's like 50 stations, and you can just turn from station to station, you never get tired, there's so much to see.
[Jessica Beck.]
I think with Warhol and media, there was a real strategic interest in what was new, culturally.
It's all for him about connecting this larger network of technology and youth and reaching Middle America.
[soft dreamy music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
And the MTV deal, Vincent says it's happening.
They're sending us contracts this week.
We'll be doing half-hour weekly shows.
It's called Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes.
Andy was always at the front edge.
Andy and I had been working well developing, slowly but surely, this whole video studio idea.
[Patrick Moore.]
For me, the most incredible thing that Warhol did, because it affected me directly, is his work on MTV.
Because I was that kid, sitting in Iowa, who would see his show and it was like this portal into this Oz-like place of New York City.
- You want to hear my hoot? - Yeah, go ahead.
[semi-hooting, semi-howling.]
[new wave music playing.]
[Kenny Scharf.]
In the early days of video, Andy was right there.
It makes me think about if he'd been alive, what he'd have done with the early days of the Internet.
It's almost like he foresaw that people would have this continued fascination with celebrity.
And we now live in this space where literally the 15 minutes does exist, practically for everybody on the planet.
But just for 15 minutes, which is truer than ever.
So you could be famous in that sense for real, but [clicking.]
like that, there are new stories and we almost forget.
And how few people understand that that was something that Andy Warhol had articulated 30, 40 years ago.
[clocks ticking and alarms beeping.]
[Jessica Beck.]
You can get a sense with Warhol of the multiple layers or channels of his practice.
One thing is happening in the studio, Interview Magazine is happening, MTV, going out to the nightclubs, Basquiat.
All of those channels are happening at the same time with Warhol.
[AI Andy.]
Pat picked me up and we went to the Dakota for Sean Lennon's birthday.
[soft dreamy music playing.]
[car horn beeping.]
[soft dreamy music continues.]
There were fans outside [camera whirring.]
because the 9th is Sean and John's birthday.
I made a little heart candy box that said, "I love you.
" And a bracelet I made out of pennies.
Keith was there and he brought Kenny Scharf as his date.
There was a kid there setting up the Apple computer that Sean had gotten as a present.
I said that once, some man had been calling me a lot wanting to give me one.
And then the kid looked up and said, "Yeah, that was me.
I'm Steve Jobs.
" - [audience applauds.]
- [soft keyboard and guitar music playing.]
And he looked so young, like a college guy.
And then he gave me a lesson on drawing with it.
And I felt so old and out of it, with this young whiz guy right there who'd helped invent it.
[soft keyboard and guitar music continues.]
After we left, I was so blue.
Because before, I was Sean's best grown-up friend and now I think Keith is.
They really hit it off.
And I'm hurt.
["Forever" by The Little Dippers plays.]
[Kenny Scharf.]
I know that feeling, I've seen it in my life.
Like, I am getting older and there's another generation.
[AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel called three or four times.
He came by and did a masterpiece upstairs.
Then Bruno came by and saw a painting that Jean-Michel wasn't finished with yet.
And he said, "I want it.
I want it.
" And so, he gave him money and took it.
And I felt funny.
Because nobody's done that for me in so long.
That's the way it used to be.
[song continues.]
This collaboration with Basquiat, kind of good for Basquiat, because Warhol became a bit of a mentor, but good for Warhol too, because he was collaborating with the hot, young thing.
You know, hot in many meanings of the word.
The nature of the relationship was so obvious.
Andy was a culture whore! Come on! And then look what happens.
He's collaborating with a dreadlocked Haitian.
He gets another breath of life again.
And for Basquiat, I mean, Andy was irresistible.
He's a Godfather.
You're just like, "Oh my God, this is the life that we want.
" He meant success to us.
Forever [song ends.]
[camera clicks and whirs.]
- [inaudible chatter.]
- [man.]
That was good.
[chatter.]
[AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel called.
Our collaboration show is on Saturday.
But really, the shows that get noticed are in October and November.
It will be okay.
And I'm just holding my breath for the big fight he'll pick with me.
["Shout To The Top" by The Style Council starts.]
It was one of those abstract days you want to block out.
Worked until 7:00.
Called Jean-Michel and said I'd pick him up and did.
Went over to the Tony Shafrazi Gallery.
[song continues.]
[cameras shuttering.]
[chatter.]
[Jeffrey Deitch.]
Jean-Michel.
Andy Warhol.
This was one of the great art events of the 1980s.
[Fab Five Freddy.]
I wasn't far, right outside, waiting for them to roll up.
They just walked up to the opening together.
And as the rain came down I dropped to my knees And I prayed Your last name please.
[AI Andy.]
And it was wall to wall.
cleanse my soul I've seen all on offer And I'm not impressed at all [AI Andy.]
My dates were two stores.
Lee from Matsuda and Philip from Fiorucci.
Plus, Benjamin.
Gerard Malanga asked me for my autograph.
Taylor Mead was there.
Rene Ricard.
[chatter and cameras shuttering.]
I was wearing the Stefano jacket, with Jean-Michel's picture painted on the back.
I've decided I can't wear odd things.
I look like a weirdo.
I'm going to stay in basic black.
[soft indie music playing.]
The paintings looked really great.
Everyone seemed to like them.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
I'm not a big fan of collaborations.
Commercially, I find them problematic.
It's often like oil on water, it just doesn't make sense.
But that really clicked as they're two great artists.
Well, I see Warhol and I see Jean-Michel, and the ratio shifts a lot.
Sometimes you look at one, I don't know, 30 feet across, I couldn't find the Warhol in it.
It just looked to me like a Basquiat.
Others were heavily influenced by Warhol's iconography and touch, so the dynamic between them was kind of negotiated in the studio.
It wasn't a preset thing: "I'll do this, you do that," it was kind of a bit of a dance with the painting.
You can see how that inspired Andy.
Clearly it was a triumph for Jean.
Looking at the work again now, I think he eclipsed Andy, personally.
[Jessica Beck.]
Instead of having the narrative that the relationship was Warhol mentoring Basquiat, it's really this whole dialogue that I think is quite powerful and it happens between Warhol and Basquiat.
There's the large canvas that has a giant Paramount image in it.
When you look at that painting and think about the Diaries and about Jon Gould working for Paramount, you can see that Warhol's experimenting with personal content.
[Kenny Scharf.]
The Paramount logo, it's also personal, obviously.
It had that interior, emotional part about it that only he was aware of.
His love at the time, Jon Gould.
And that's the power of it, because it is emotional.
If there wasn't any emotion attached, it wouldn't have such strength.
[Jessica Beck.]
I think it's Basquiat who gives Warhol access to a new form of painting, to be more liberal with his personal messaging and symbols in the work that speak to personal meaning.
[Jeffrey Deitch.]
The best ones, they're just unbelievably great.
But then comes the critical reaction.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
[horn sounding.]
[AI Andy.]
We decided to go to Odeon.
[camera shuttering.]
When we were at Odeon, I asked for the paper.
[soft jazz music playing.]
And there, on Friday's Times, I saw a big headline.
And I just read one line, that Jean-Michel was my mascot.
Oh God.
A mascot? Who's talking here? Who the hell is thinking this crap? They have no idea what the fuck they're saying or thinking.
With no reference points, they're making a decision and spreading this poisonous, evil crap.
It's irresponsible.
It's so hurtful.
[AI Andy.]
I asked him if he was mad at me for that review where he got called my mascot.
[soft jazz continues.]
And he said, no.
[Fab Five Freddy.]
But that did have an effect on Jean I believe, 'cause it was overwhelming.
Once again, the ignorance, the bitterness, the hatred, the racism.
Too many critics, too many so-called "people that know it all," it was just too much, too soon, is my opinion.
[Larry Gagosian.]
He was devastated.
It was a horrible, mean, stupid review.
And, you know, you could tell him that, but he read it in The New York Times, and it it hurt.
Basquiat paintings now sell for 100 million dollars, but careers are fragile, at that point particularly fragile for an artist in his early twenties, Black um, you know, kind of living on the edge.
He was very vulnerable.
[Liz Munsell.]
While it was intended to be, you know, a mutually beneficial experiment, there's just a very clear difference in the amount of power that Andy holds as somebody who is as established as he is, older, white.
It was a little bit of a deer and a hunter in the relationship.
Jean-Michel was obsessed with Andy.
Obsessed with him.
He represented, um, everything that Jean-Michel wanted.
But when they started doing those paintings, Basquiat was 24, 25, I mean, he was you know how young that is? I mean And to have this kind of god-like figure showing him attention [camera clicks and whirs.]
The relationship between Andy and Basquiat is one that's certainly complicated and a lot of people talk about different power dynamics.
Warhol certainly was privileged as a white male in the United States and so, he couldn't understand the systemic racism that somebody like Basquiat had to deal with during his life.
I think that, at the end of the day, these were two smart, talented artists, who understood the dynamics of the relationship.
The one exception I would draw to is the fact that Andy became Jean-Michel's landlord.
It's one thing to have a friendship and have competitiveness as artists but when you are someone's landlord, that does create a power dynamic and a tension in a relationship that could become problematic.
[AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel is going to rent the carriage house that we own at 57 Great Jones.
So, Benjamin went to get the lease, and I hope it works out.
He's a drug addict, so, he's not dependable.
I think it is possible to hold two opposing views at the same time.
- What's your last name, sweetheart? - Basquiat.
I thought it was Sweetheart.
There's a lot of affection there, even though in the diaries and other places, he says horrible things about Basquiat.
[soft atmospheric music playing.]
[Wilfredo Rosado.]
I never experienced Andy to be someone who would judge someone by the color of their skin.
You can look at me, for example.
So, he chose a Puerto Rican kid, who came from an urban environment, and decided that he was going to give me amazing opportunities at Interview.
So, if someone was reading the diaries today [sighs.]
You know, it was different times.
I think, you know, people spoke differently.
I, for one, would have never tolerated anyone who was a racist.
You know, I know for a fact that I never witnessed that from Andy.
It's hard to know what Warhol's attitudes were toward people of color.
[director.]
There is language in the diaries that is insensitive and racist.
He comes from a time that, you know, had a perception of Black people as others or stereotypes.
Was that a generational thing? You know, it's complicated.
His use of language does reveal something about I think, a certain generational side of Warhol, and a fear, maybe, fear of the other.
[atmospheric music continues.]
Well Andy, I think, had a fear.
His brothers told me that in Pittsburgh, the Black ghetto was next to the Slavic ghetto, and, you know, there apparently was tension.
[speaking Ruthenian.]
[woman.]
What are you gonna get from there? [speaking Ruthenian.]
[camera clicks and whirs.]
[director.]
For Andy, who's born in 1928 and lives through the civil rights movement, can you help us understand the culture when they start collaborating? You know, what happens in the '80s is really the fruit of the civil rights movement.
These doors that have been shut down by, you know, Jim Crow segregation, you know, Black people actually having some agency and autonomy within pop culture, within media.
Every week, there's a new breakthrough, in terms of Black presence in culture.
You know, people that were impossible to even imagine before the '80s.
There's no question, they're the breaking wave.
That's a "storming the gates" moment.
Check this out.
[Greg Tate.]
Stuff was really starting to get mixed up in a really powerful way.
[Glenn Ligon.]
I think they probably both thought of each other as outsiders.
But if you only know famous Black people, that's a very different take on the world, than if you know, like, regular Black folks, you know.
And my sense is that Andy knew the famous ones.
So, there was a limit to his knowledge.
If you're hanging out with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, that's a slice of Black America, that's not all of it.
[AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel wanted to go to the Jermaine Jackson party at Limelight, so, we went down there.
And it was one of those parties, where the bouncers were all Mafia-type guys who didn't know anybody.
Jean-Michel took us to the wrong section, and they told us to beat it.
And he said, "Now you see how it is to be Black.
" So, yeah, in some ways, Jean-Michel has to educate Andy around what it means to be a young, Black man in New York in the '80s.
That's not a reality, I don't think, that Warhol knew anything about, you know.
Hashtag, no days off for Black people.
[AI Andy.]
Talked to Jean-Michel and he said he was straight, but he sounded like he was on something.
[David LaChapelle.]
The difference between him and Jean-Michel, Andy had had ups and downs in his career.
He had this whole family around him at Interview Magazine and all these people every day to go to work [camera clicks and whirs.]
So when that New York Times review came out, it really took a toll.
Their friendship it was like they'd committed a crime.
They couldn't almost be seen together.
It was embarrassing.
[AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel hasn't called me in a month.
He used to call me all the time from wherever he was.
I don't know.
I think this whole period is over with him coming to paint.
I guess he's slowly breaking away.
So, I guess it's really over.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
He was devastated.
He'd say, "Paige, just call Jean-Michel up and have him to dinner.
" And I'd go, "I don't want to call him," because I wasn't dating him anymore, and he goes, "Oh, just call up.
" And I said, "Why are you doing that? Why are you trying to hurt yourself? He left you.
" [Futura.]
You know, I look at the '80s really as almost like a half decade for me.
It pretty much ends in '85 in a way.
People were still hanging on, selling "graffiti art," but after a few years it was kind of played out.
Andy's career had already been set in stone.
Jean and Keith were certainly rising, and Jean more than anyone.
[Kenny Scharf.]
The scene was lots of fun and excitement until Jean started getting famous, because that introduced money.
See, before that, we had all these dreams of fame and fortune and all that stuff, but we were all the same level, nobody had money.
And then, all of a sudden, you know, "Oh shit, this is real money.
" So, it changed the whole atmosphere of "all for each other" and "art for art" to "Fuck, I better get on that money train or I'm gonna miss out.
" And it wasn't so fun anymore, and then of course, you had that and then you had AIDS.
So, the combination pretty much put a kibosh on that fun and excitement that was taking place.
Actually, it's really horrible Klaus has AIDS now.
I haven't even seen him for months.
[friend.]
I think he's getting better.
[Keith Haring.]
Yeah, but I don't think you get better from AIDS.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
As you look back on it now, I think that people know things before they know things.
And I think that we all knew, particularly the gay men and women of that time, that maybe this was the very last moment of an era that would never come back again.
And the way it affected everybody was this sort of exuberance of living life to the fullest, with no holds barred.
If I could go anywhere, anytime, in a time machine, and experience life, you'd be hard-pressed to beat that time and place.
It was like a dream sequence.
[AI Andy.]
"I could never really describe the Diana Ross concert in Central Park.
" [Rob Lowe.]
I arrived in New York about two nights ago.
I'm gonna see Diana Ross tonight.
[TV presenter 4.]
None other than Diana Ross will perform live in a free concert in a little patch of green known as Central Park.
[AI Andy.]
Jon was working with Barry Diller to organize and produce it.
Paramount got the film rights.
[crowd cheering.]
[director.]
To what extent was Jon producing that and it was a big moment for him? He sort of was the visionary on all the levels.
Who came, how it happened, he was amazing.
[dreamy music playing.]
I think Andy loved it.
The crowd, Central Park, the whole thing is very cinematic.
[crowd cheering.]
[AI Andy.]
It was the most exciting thing I've ever seen.
The event of the century.
[crowd cheering.]
We were in the VIP area and Rob Lowe was with us.
And he's so beautiful, it's like his eyebrows are painted on.
And his lips painted on.
Everything so perfect.
[Benjamin Liu.]
Rob Lowe showed up in a tank top.
I think we all kind of gagged and melted.
- [dreamy music continues.]
- [crowd cheers.]
[AI Andy.]
The sky darkened and the rain came, and it was the most incredible thing I've ever seen.
[Diana Ross.]
It was the most incredible moment in my life, because it was actually a beautiful day when we started.
And I saw myself look up and the sky started to gray and I could feel something coming at me.
[Jane Mitchell.]
Diana Ross told her audience it was their powerful energy which broke open the clouds and sent down the rain.
[crowd cheers.]
[AI Andy.]
It was like the greatest scene from a movie ever.
[Benjamin Liu.]
"It was like the greatest scene from a movie ever.
" Maybe Andy saw that movie too many times.
Mahogany.
- [dreamy music intensifies.]
- [applause.]
Success is nothing without someone you love to share it with.
[AI Andy.]
But it was like a dream like a hallucination, watching this spectacle.
[TV presenter 5.]
Diana, with her arms outstretched against the darkening sky, her face upturned in driving sheets of rain, why, she looked like some fantastic sorceress in a fairy tale.
- [piano music playing.]
- [crowd cheering.]
[AI Andy.]
Before I was shot, I always thought I was more half there than all there.
I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life.
People say that the way things happen in movies isn't real.
But actually, it's the way things happen in life that's not real.
Movies make emotions look so strong.
Whereas when things actually do happen to you, it's like watching TV.
You don't feel anything.
Right when I was being shot, and ever since, I knew that I was watching television.
The channels switch, but it's all television.
Are these little things still working? Just thought I'd make you feel at home.
- [Diana Ross screams and laughs.]
- [Audience cheers and laughs.]
Oh, man.
[Johnny Carson.]
We have everything.
Rain, snow back there, lightning.
[piano music slows.]
[AI Andy.]
And I felt so sorry for Jon because he's worked so hard on this.
[crowd cheering.]
But they stopped it in the middle of the storm.
She was crying.
And then finally, people were leaving the park.
[hubbub and chatter.]
We wound up coming out at 72nd Street near the Dakota.
It was like being in a war zone.
[easy listening jazz music playing.]
And then after we got out of the park, I took Rob Lowe and Benjamin to Café Central.
I said all the stars go there, Matt Dillon and Sean Penn.
And then we got there and had drinks, and absolutely nobody was there.
[jazz music continues.]
And at the party at the Gulf and Western Building, I gave Diana Ross a diamond painting.
She was looking at tapes of the concert.
[Diana Ross on tape.]
It's raining on my playing over here.
[AI Andy.]
Barry Diller came over and I told him the concert was so great.
And he said, "You've always liked disasters.
You liked Grease 2.
" Harvey Mann, who works for Liz Smith, was there and he was asking me if I'd heard anything more about Calvin and AIDS.
He said that they'd killed the rumor in their column.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
Calvin Klein, unfortunately, was the poster boy for AIDS gossip.
Everybody pushed everything onto poor Calvin, and he defied everyone's gossip and lived.
But because everyone knew about Calvin Klein's sex life, everyone wanted to know, "Has Calvin got AIDS?" Calvin's stock went down at one point because of the rumor, "Oh, Calvin has AIDS.
" [organ music playing.]
[Calvin Klein.]
So, I'd become successful financially.
I'd become pretty well-known at a fairly young age, and, uh, I'm happy.
I mean, what could be better? You know, that is the American Dream, you know, you have it all.
[AI Andy.]
And then Calvin came in and he kissed me so hard and his beard was stubbly.
And I was so afraid that it was piercing into my pimple, and being like a needle and giving me AIDS.
So, if I'm gone in three years [Benjamin Liu.]
"And I was so afraid that it was piercing into my pimple, and being like a needle giving me AIDS.
So, if I'm gone in three years" Hmm.
Scientists at the National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta today released [Benjamin Liu.]
The gay cancer, or AIDS, happened so rapidly, and there were so many unknowns and so many people died.
And there was no cure in sight, and there's still no cure by the way.
I think Andy is genuinely uneasy.
Because, you know, you had to remember, he had gone through a lot.
He had literally died on the operating table and revived.
I mean, he made a deal with God so to speak.
[poignant music continues.]
It it makes me kind of I'm crossing my eyebrows, um, and I'm not emotional, but I just get um, I kind of go hmm.
Critics that wrote about the Diaries when it first came out, and they all said it was so glossy on the surface, but they don't know how to read it, I think.
Um, in answer to the critics, they just don't know how to read it.
People read the Diaries for many different reasons.
An art historian reads it to get some clues, right? A social person reads it to make sure that their name is in there.
If you read between the lines, I mean it's poignant, you know, that's what I got out of it when I read it, yeah.
It's not so surface.
- [nature sounds.]
- [jaunty piano music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
Got up early.
The New York Times had a big article about gay cancer and how they don't know what to do with it.
That it's epidemic proportions.
Went out with Chris who'd just gotten his clean, negative results back on his gay cancer tests.
And I couldn't work with Jon, because he had to go to a gay cancer funeral at Paramount.
It was a secretary there, a male secretary.
And the Post today had the headline, "Fashion Designer Dies of AIDS," But it wasn't Calvin.
And Robert Hayes is now in the hospital with pneumonia.
He came in for a business lunch once.
And I asked why he had round little bandages on and they said he'd just had moles removed.
And that sounded reasonable.
I don't think he has what he's afraid he has.
I think he's just rundown and scared.
I mean, I don't think you can catch it that easily.
[Bob Colacello.]
Robert Hayes, who succeeded me as editor, went very, very quickly.
And it was horrifying what had happened to him in a matter of a few months, with pneumonia, with Kaposi, with it was just terrifying.
[AI Andy.]
And I had to call Doc Cox's office to find out the results of my tests.
[atmospheric music playing.]
So finally, I braced myself and decided to be brave.
And that if it was anything horrible, I'd just take it in stride.
[suspenseful music.]
So, I called.
And they said nothing was wrong.
So I hung up, feeling that health sure was wealth.
[poignant piano music playing.]
Did a personal errand with Jon.
[traffic sounds.]
But he made me promise not to put anything personal about him in the diary.
[poignant piano music continues.]
[Jessica Beck.]
I think the editor's notes are fascinating, 'cause there really are only a handful, and it's a real intentional move on Pat Hackett's part to put that in, otherwise, no one would know.
[Jay Gould.]
He called me one day and said he had pneumonia.
He said, "I want you to come see me, I'm in the hospital.
" He said, "Well, I have something wrong with my immune system also.
" [poignant piano music continues.]
- [director.]
Was Andy ever at the hospital? - Mm-hmm, yep.
[Jay Gould.]
A nurse or a doctor came in, and I started chatting with Andy, and he said, "I don't like hospitals, I have a hernia, but I'm not getting it fixed because I really have a fear of hospitals.
" [chatter.]
- [camera clicks and whirs.]
- [heart rate monitor beeping.]
[soft piano music playing.]
[Jessica Beck.]
To go to this place that was all about a trigger of a past trauma for him, and to stay there by his bedside when he's sick, is, I think, just a full expression of how much he cared about Jon.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
I mean, it's out of character for him.
Andy never liked to deal with sickness.
But, you know, he loved Jon, so, if you love somebody, you do things that you might not normally do.
[soft piano music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
Got home and was really tired.
Watched TV.
Took a Valium.
I was depressed because Jon is so aloof.
He says he needs to be his own person.
And I always feel like he's just about to leave.
So, I never can feel relaxed.
[traffic sounds.]
[Katy Dobbs.]
Jon was equating being sick with New York, and New York was this epicenter and he wanted away from it.
He wanted away from it.
[soft piano music continues.]
[ambulance siren wailing.]
[Katy Dobbs.]
He just got crazy about getting to L.
A.
He just felt he would be healthy there and he could get a new start.
And a lot of the doctors he wanted to work with were out there.
Our weather out here is easy.
You're near the ocean, the water's incredibly healing.
[beach sounds.]
There's a lot of people that are very interested in metaphysical stuff and meditation and Buddhism and doing all these different kinds of things.
Sometimes people will come here because it's a great environment for you to embrace that kind of lifestyle.
[Shirley Maclaine.]
I think this New Age approach to making your life better is saying that you can create a more positive reality and not have to learn through suffering.
- I don't see why she must have this pain.
- Ma'am, it's not my patient.
It's time for her shot.
Do something.
My daughter is in pain! Give her the shot! Do you understand me? - You're going to behave.
- Give my daughter the shot! [AI Andy.]
Jon interviewed Shirley MacLaine for the cover of Interview's health issue.
He's transcribing it himself, so he can edit it.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
Andy came in to Interview one time and said, "We're gonna do a whole issue of health.
" Which was all of this crazy, you know, half-baked stuff.
[AI Andy.]
I'm going to go to a doctor who puts crystals on you, and it gives you energy.
Jon's gotten interested in that kind of stuff.
He says it gives you power.
And I think it sounds like a good thing to be doing.
Health is wealth.
[Marc Balet.]
The whole crystal thing I never got, but obviously, people were dying left and right around us.
You know, it affected everybody.
[Jay Gould.]
He tried a lot of alternative treatments.
He would do certain exercises anything he could think of to try and heal himself.
[AI Andy.]
Now that Jon is working in Los Angeles most of the time, he's buying a house in Beverly Hills.
Almost immediately, Jon left for L.
A.
He moved very quickly to Los Angeles.
[soft piano music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
Stayed up all night getting ready for the next day, to go to California.
Went out driving.
Took a lot of pictures on Melrose.
You know what's fascinating, is that Hollywood is still filled with all these delicate ladies, who look like they were beauties, all glued up and in their cars, driving around.
And you wonder what star they were what roles they had.
Jon invited me to breakfast at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
It was a gray day, but we ate outside anyway.
They put heaters all around you, so you don't know it's cold.
And we didn't talk much about his new life.
[piano music continues.]
[Katy Dobbs.]
I remember saying to Jon at his house, "What does Andy think?" And he went, "He hasn't been here.
" And I went, "Oh.
" You know, like, "So this is a break.
" [AI Andy.]
And then went back to the hotel with Pat, who was keeping me company because I was depressed.
He never gave me keys to his new house.
So, I guess I'll never be staying there.
[waves crashing.]
I guess he didn't want to be linked with me in L.
A.
I mean, you know somebody, they are living in your house, and then suddenly they don't know you anymore.
[piano music intensifies.]
Oh, I don't know.
Life is interesting, I guess.
Called Jean-Michel in L.
A.
But he was either distant or he was high.
I told him I missed him a lot.
And he said no stars had been at his opening, and he said Jon Gould had been there, but he wouldn't talk to me about him for some reason.
[seagulls calling and waves crashing.]
[Jay Gould.]
At first, I had a lot of hope, but he was in rough shape.
He got really skinny, lesions.
It was it was bad.
[poignant piano music playing.]
Eventually, we had to tell my parents.
[Katy Dobbs.]
I went with his parents to L.
A.
That was a really tough trip.
[poignant piano music continues.]
I remember I was pregnant, and Jon did some weird crystal stuff on my stomach, and he said, um, "Maybe your baby and I will meet [voice wavering.]
as we change places.
" [piano music increases tempo.]
But it was such a long, horrible death too.
Um [choking up.]
He was rare.
He was a rare bird.
And I think he could have been everything he wanted to be.
- [voice.]
Jonny! - [Jon laughs.]
[piano music continues.]
[AI Andy.]
Kenny Scharf called.
There was a party for his wife Tereza's birthday in the park, near the bridge to get across the lake.
[camera whirring.]
Not too many people were there.
But in a few minutes, suddenly everybody arrived.
[camera shuttering.]
And the diary can write itself on the other news from L.
A.
, which I don't want to talk about.
[Jessica Beck.]
Pat Hackett's editor's note is devastating.
The note reads: "Jon Gould died on September 18th at age 33 after 'an extended illness.
' He was down to 70 pounds and he was blind.
He denied even to close friends that he had AIDS.
" [Jay Gould.]
It bothered me that dying of AIDS, that was the story, when there was this great story over here about him.
[poignant piano music playing.]
[Kenny Scharf.]
That was another one of those things where Jon just went away, like, he went to California and didn't come back.
I don't believe in death because I think they've gone to California and, uh, they'll be back soon.
[soft atmospheric music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
I wish I were 20 and could go through all this again.
But I never want to go through anything or anybody in my whole life.
Oh, I don't know.
I guess I missed out a lot on life.
[traffic sounds.]
Never pick-ups out on the street or anything like that.
I feel life has passed me by.
[poignant atmospheric music continues.]
I watched The NeverEnding Story.
[laughs.]
[AI Andy.]
This movie my God it affected me so much.
- [Gmork growls.]
- [Atreyu.]
I will not die easily.
I am a warrior.
[scoffs.]
Brave warrior.
Then fight the Nothing.
What is the Nothing?! It's the emptiness that's left.
It is like a despair, destroying this world.
And I have been trying to help it.
But why?! [atmospheric music continues.]
[AI Andy.]
The Nothingness is taking over the planet.
It's sort of my philosophy.
Looking for Nothingness.
[Andy.]
It's too hard to care for this art.
Well, I care, I still care, but I mean, it would be so much easier not to care.
Don't want to get too involved.
[atmospheric music intensifies.]
[AI Andy.]
Cabbed to the crystal doctor.
And this time it was a real experience.
He had me lie down on his table and close my eyes.
He said I have some negative powers in me, and he would touch me here and there.
And when I wouldn't have any reaction, he said I wasn't in touch with my pain.
[crashing and growling.]
And that I would have to become sensitive to it.
[strong winds and crashing.]
[Gmork roars.]
[AI Andy.]
The session was like an exorcism.
[atmospheric music continues.]
[grunts.]
I don't know if these crystals work.
But I've got to believe in something.
[atmospheric music grows softer.]
Because things could always be worse.
[soft instrumental piano music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
The day started off with dread as I woke up from my dreams and thought about my live appearance for Commodore computers.
And how nothing is worth all this worrying, to wake up and feel so terrified.
Commodore wants me to be a spokesman.
It's a $3,000 machine that's like the Apple thing, but can do 100 times more.
[synth music continues.]
[applause.]
- [Debbie Harry.]
Are you ready to paint me? - [Andy.]
Yeah.
[man.]
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here tonight to help Andy do his first computer portrait.
What computers have you worked on before? [Andy.]
I haven't worked on anything.
I waited for this one.
- Really? - [audience laughs.]
[AI Andy.]
The whole day was spent being nervous and telling myself that if I could just get good at stuff like this, then I could make money that way, and I wouldn't have to paint.
[man.]
Andy is selecting from the menu bar which gives you all the features of the paint system.
[Andy.]
We'll do the hair, then I go up to color [AI Andy.]
The drawing came out terrible.
And I called it a masterpiece.
[Andy.]
This is kind of pretty.
I think I'll keep it.
- [laughter.]
- [man.]
Okay.
- [Andy.]
Oh, it's beautiful.
- [man.]
Mm.
[AI Andy.]
It was a real mess.
I said I wanted to be Walt Disney and that if I'd had this machine ten years ago, I could have made it.
[man.]
You've found it to be very spontaneous, haven't you? [Andy.]
Yeah, it's great.
It's such a great thing.
[audience laughs.]
[AI Andy.]
And the news is full of Rock Hudson having AIDS in Paris.
[TV presenter.]
As we said earlier, actor Rock Hudson has AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Groups like the National Gay Task Force are hoping the actor's high visibility will promote new understanding of this disease.
[AI Andy.]
And now I guess people will finally believe Rock Hudson's gay.
When you'd tell them before, they wouldn't believe it.
There are some men who just, uh, well, they're very devoted to their mothers, you know the type that likes to, uh, collect cooking recipes or exchange bits of gossip.
Ooh, what a vicious thing to say.
[AI Andy.]
The Enquirer and Star and People and Newsweek and Time all had Rock Hudson on the cover.
[soft harp music playing.]
We should have had him on Interview's cover.
It would have been funny to have a phony baloney interview with him on all the newsstands now.
"'Why I'm straight, ' by Rock Hudson.
" [opening music: "Nature Boy" by Nat King Cole.]
There was a boy A very strange enchanted boy They say he wandered very far Very far Over land and sea A little shy And sad of eye But very wise Was he The greatest thing You'll ever learn Is just to love And be loved In return [soft bagpipe music playing.]
[Jeffrey Deitch.]
Andy Warhol's greatest work of art is Andy Warhol.
The way he constructs his persona.
He is an early example of artist as art.
You could put Gertrude Stein in that category, Salvador DalÃ, Oscar Wilde, to musicians That then vastly expands into TikTok stars and YouTube stars, where it's a kind of degraded version of artist as art.
[chatter.]
And Andy Warhol is a model for this.
Ladies and gentlemen, certainly a man who needs no introduction.
Have you ever seen such total bedlam and pandemonium in your entire life? Never.
It's anybody's guess how self-aware Andy was.
[TV presenter 2.]
Four of the top ten cable shows in America are wrestling shows.
[Patrick Moore.]
How much he did things for money.
It was a big enterprise he was running.
He had to keep the money coming in.
[speaking Japanese.]
Just for the taste of it Diet Coke [Patrick Moore.]
Warhol was the first artist who put himself in every area of mass media.
[soft piano music playing.]
But then also there might have been this other part that was, "I want to be able to be accepted in the broad mainstream media.
" It's a sort of plaintive cry for acceptance I think.
[AI Andy.]
Vincent worked things out with the Saturday Night Live people.
The deal is we're going to get $3,000 for the first week's segment, and, if that goes well, we'll do more.
[crunching into an apple.]
In In the first place, I never thought I'd ever be on Saturday Night Live, because I hate the show.
[AI Andy.]
I'm scared about this Saturday Night Live thing.
Jon thinks I shouldn't do it, because if it's bad, so many people will see it.
So I'm hoping they don't use it after all.
We did our lines, and I was terrible.
Really, really peculiar.
I don't think it's funny.
[punching numbers into a telephone.]
- Hello? - Oh, hi Calvin.
Oh gee, what are you wearing tonight? - Tonight I'm wearing - Oh gee, that's great.
[AI Andy.]
Called Vincent to see if he'd heard anything about Saturday Night Live, and he said that yes, they were going to use it, that they were really happy with it.
[Andy.]
I really like my costume.
I really like my costume.
Have a good time at the parties.
[AI Andy.]
So many people must see Saturday Night Live, because instead of people on the street saying, "There's Andy Warhol, the artist," I heard, "There's Andy Warhol from Saturday Night Live.
" I am surprised.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
I think Warhol never felt fully accepted, and he's repeating that back in the Diaries as like, he's too different and he's too queer for Middle America.
[soft lounge music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
The Love Boat writers are working on my episode.
[lounge music becomes choral music.]
And I started to get scared.
I don't know if I can go through with it.
One of the lines I have to say is something like, "Art is crass commercialism," which I don't want to say.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
The Love Boat was a stupid show.
It's a dumb show.
But just the fact that he was on it, it was like making yourself part of the pop art culture as a performance.
That is like a really fun way to infiltrate mainstream.
[The Love Boat theme music playing.]
We're expecting you The Love Boat [audience laughter.]
Mary tells me you want to paint her picture.
Well, that's impossible.
It's nothing personal, Mr.
Warhol, it's just that we come from two different worlds.
[soft dreamy music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
Pat met me there.
And we sat in the dressing room for a couple of hours, while they rearranged the lights.
My Stephen Sprouse jackets were there on the wardrobe rack.
[suspenseful music playing.]
Hi, Marina.
[audience laughs.]
[suspenseful music playing.]
[camera clicks and whirs.]
Stephen's clothes were like '60s redux but with new energy that Stephen put in it.
I think you should respect the general public's intelligence and give 'em more.
I don't think people get credit for being as bright as they are.
And the more new and wild stuff, I think there are more people that want it than actually can get it.
[AI Andy.]
And when I wear my Stephen Sprouse jackets, I think I finally look like people want Andy Warhol to look again.
[dreamy music continues.]
[George Hammond.]
No way a wife of mine is gonna have her picture painted by that New York flakeball.
And how are you gonna explain this to our son, huh? Your reputation will be ruined! [swooshing rises and falls.]
[soft piano music playing.]
[Jessica Beck.]
He always wanted to be at the center somehow, in this fantasy world of fame and of notoriety and acceptance.
But he also wanted to be the center of the art world.
It's like he wanted too much, maybe.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm flexible.
I mean, I could even go for something like that.
If you could do that sort of thing, it'd be a different story.
Well, that's mine.
[soft piano music continues.]
[AI Andy.]
Fred called me, really mad.
He said, how could Paige and Vincent and I have put an ad for Andy Warhol portraits in the Neiman-Marcus catalog? He was so mad, saying how tacky it was.
I just said life was too short to get so upset about a stupid mistake.
[soft piano music continues.]
[Kenny Scharf.]
There was a certain aspect of Andy's, and I remember Keith as well, which was celebrity and glam, it's glitzy, the facade.
So it's like, you're a little bit satirizing it, but not completely.
So, there's a part of you that actually is going for it.
[TV Presenter 3.]
Warhol, a fellow Pennsylvanian, has certainly influenced Haring's artistic and commercial sensibilities.
But the artist seems far more concerned with fame than fortune.
More than the 15 minutes of fame his friend Andy Warhol once said everyone would get.
[MTV VMA presenter.]
Live, it's the second annual MTV Video Music Awards.
And now, ladies and [AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel called and said he was invited to the MTV Awards thing.
Keith called, same thing.
So hot you're cool so cool you're hot Show me my favorite beauty spot Tie me up [AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel arrived in a limo.
He said he didn't want to go with Keith because Keith was too pushy.
Keith just wanted to be photographed so badly.
And he wanted to go with me, so he'd be sure to be photographed.
So we got to Radio City, and it was just the biggest mob there.
["Hot You're Cool" by General Public continues and fades.]
But the TV cameras had already left, so Keith was really upset.
I mean, I like Keith, but it was so sick.
[applause.]
Then it was over.
[soft piano music playing.]
These music videos, they're all like '60s underground movies.
People running around.
Like Stan Brakhage and all those kids used to make.
TV is much more exciting.
You know, with all the cable television in New York, there's like you turn on your TV and there's like 50 stations, and you can just turn from station to station, you never get tired, there's so much to see.
[Jessica Beck.]
I think with Warhol and media, there was a real strategic interest in what was new, culturally.
It's all for him about connecting this larger network of technology and youth and reaching Middle America.
[soft dreamy music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
And the MTV deal, Vincent says it's happening.
They're sending us contracts this week.
We'll be doing half-hour weekly shows.
It's called Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes.
Andy was always at the front edge.
Andy and I had been working well developing, slowly but surely, this whole video studio idea.
[Patrick Moore.]
For me, the most incredible thing that Warhol did, because it affected me directly, is his work on MTV.
Because I was that kid, sitting in Iowa, who would see his show and it was like this portal into this Oz-like place of New York City.
- You want to hear my hoot? - Yeah, go ahead.
[semi-hooting, semi-howling.]
[new wave music playing.]
[Kenny Scharf.]
In the early days of video, Andy was right there.
It makes me think about if he'd been alive, what he'd have done with the early days of the Internet.
It's almost like he foresaw that people would have this continued fascination with celebrity.
And we now live in this space where literally the 15 minutes does exist, practically for everybody on the planet.
But just for 15 minutes, which is truer than ever.
So you could be famous in that sense for real, but [clicking.]
like that, there are new stories and we almost forget.
And how few people understand that that was something that Andy Warhol had articulated 30, 40 years ago.
[clocks ticking and alarms beeping.]
[Jessica Beck.]
You can get a sense with Warhol of the multiple layers or channels of his practice.
One thing is happening in the studio, Interview Magazine is happening, MTV, going out to the nightclubs, Basquiat.
All of those channels are happening at the same time with Warhol.
[AI Andy.]
Pat picked me up and we went to the Dakota for Sean Lennon's birthday.
[soft dreamy music playing.]
[car horn beeping.]
[soft dreamy music continues.]
There were fans outside [camera whirring.]
because the 9th is Sean and John's birthday.
I made a little heart candy box that said, "I love you.
" And a bracelet I made out of pennies.
Keith was there and he brought Kenny Scharf as his date.
There was a kid there setting up the Apple computer that Sean had gotten as a present.
I said that once, some man had been calling me a lot wanting to give me one.
And then the kid looked up and said, "Yeah, that was me.
I'm Steve Jobs.
" - [audience applauds.]
- [soft keyboard and guitar music playing.]
And he looked so young, like a college guy.
And then he gave me a lesson on drawing with it.
And I felt so old and out of it, with this young whiz guy right there who'd helped invent it.
[soft keyboard and guitar music continues.]
After we left, I was so blue.
Because before, I was Sean's best grown-up friend and now I think Keith is.
They really hit it off.
And I'm hurt.
["Forever" by The Little Dippers plays.]
[Kenny Scharf.]
I know that feeling, I've seen it in my life.
Like, I am getting older and there's another generation.
[AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel called three or four times.
He came by and did a masterpiece upstairs.
Then Bruno came by and saw a painting that Jean-Michel wasn't finished with yet.
And he said, "I want it.
I want it.
" And so, he gave him money and took it.
And I felt funny.
Because nobody's done that for me in so long.
That's the way it used to be.
[song continues.]
This collaboration with Basquiat, kind of good for Basquiat, because Warhol became a bit of a mentor, but good for Warhol too, because he was collaborating with the hot, young thing.
You know, hot in many meanings of the word.
The nature of the relationship was so obvious.
Andy was a culture whore! Come on! And then look what happens.
He's collaborating with a dreadlocked Haitian.
He gets another breath of life again.
And for Basquiat, I mean, Andy was irresistible.
He's a Godfather.
You're just like, "Oh my God, this is the life that we want.
" He meant success to us.
Forever [song ends.]
[camera clicks and whirs.]
- [inaudible chatter.]
- [man.]
That was good.
[chatter.]
[AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel called.
Our collaboration show is on Saturday.
But really, the shows that get noticed are in October and November.
It will be okay.
And I'm just holding my breath for the big fight he'll pick with me.
["Shout To The Top" by The Style Council starts.]
It was one of those abstract days you want to block out.
Worked until 7:00.
Called Jean-Michel and said I'd pick him up and did.
Went over to the Tony Shafrazi Gallery.
[song continues.]
[cameras shuttering.]
[chatter.]
[Jeffrey Deitch.]
Jean-Michel.
Andy Warhol.
This was one of the great art events of the 1980s.
[Fab Five Freddy.]
I wasn't far, right outside, waiting for them to roll up.
They just walked up to the opening together.
And as the rain came down I dropped to my knees And I prayed Your last name please.
[AI Andy.]
And it was wall to wall.
cleanse my soul I've seen all on offer And I'm not impressed at all [AI Andy.]
My dates were two stores.
Lee from Matsuda and Philip from Fiorucci.
Plus, Benjamin.
Gerard Malanga asked me for my autograph.
Taylor Mead was there.
Rene Ricard.
[chatter and cameras shuttering.]
I was wearing the Stefano jacket, with Jean-Michel's picture painted on the back.
I've decided I can't wear odd things.
I look like a weirdo.
I'm going to stay in basic black.
[soft indie music playing.]
The paintings looked really great.
Everyone seemed to like them.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
I'm not a big fan of collaborations.
Commercially, I find them problematic.
It's often like oil on water, it just doesn't make sense.
But that really clicked as they're two great artists.
Well, I see Warhol and I see Jean-Michel, and the ratio shifts a lot.
Sometimes you look at one, I don't know, 30 feet across, I couldn't find the Warhol in it.
It just looked to me like a Basquiat.
Others were heavily influenced by Warhol's iconography and touch, so the dynamic between them was kind of negotiated in the studio.
It wasn't a preset thing: "I'll do this, you do that," it was kind of a bit of a dance with the painting.
You can see how that inspired Andy.
Clearly it was a triumph for Jean.
Looking at the work again now, I think he eclipsed Andy, personally.
[Jessica Beck.]
Instead of having the narrative that the relationship was Warhol mentoring Basquiat, it's really this whole dialogue that I think is quite powerful and it happens between Warhol and Basquiat.
There's the large canvas that has a giant Paramount image in it.
When you look at that painting and think about the Diaries and about Jon Gould working for Paramount, you can see that Warhol's experimenting with personal content.
[Kenny Scharf.]
The Paramount logo, it's also personal, obviously.
It had that interior, emotional part about it that only he was aware of.
His love at the time, Jon Gould.
And that's the power of it, because it is emotional.
If there wasn't any emotion attached, it wouldn't have such strength.
[Jessica Beck.]
I think it's Basquiat who gives Warhol access to a new form of painting, to be more liberal with his personal messaging and symbols in the work that speak to personal meaning.
[Jeffrey Deitch.]
The best ones, they're just unbelievably great.
But then comes the critical reaction.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
[horn sounding.]
[AI Andy.]
We decided to go to Odeon.
[camera shuttering.]
When we were at Odeon, I asked for the paper.
[soft jazz music playing.]
And there, on Friday's Times, I saw a big headline.
And I just read one line, that Jean-Michel was my mascot.
Oh God.
A mascot? Who's talking here? Who the hell is thinking this crap? They have no idea what the fuck they're saying or thinking.
With no reference points, they're making a decision and spreading this poisonous, evil crap.
It's irresponsible.
It's so hurtful.
[AI Andy.]
I asked him if he was mad at me for that review where he got called my mascot.
[soft jazz continues.]
And he said, no.
[Fab Five Freddy.]
But that did have an effect on Jean I believe, 'cause it was overwhelming.
Once again, the ignorance, the bitterness, the hatred, the racism.
Too many critics, too many so-called "people that know it all," it was just too much, too soon, is my opinion.
[Larry Gagosian.]
He was devastated.
It was a horrible, mean, stupid review.
And, you know, you could tell him that, but he read it in The New York Times, and it it hurt.
Basquiat paintings now sell for 100 million dollars, but careers are fragile, at that point particularly fragile for an artist in his early twenties, Black um, you know, kind of living on the edge.
He was very vulnerable.
[Liz Munsell.]
While it was intended to be, you know, a mutually beneficial experiment, there's just a very clear difference in the amount of power that Andy holds as somebody who is as established as he is, older, white.
It was a little bit of a deer and a hunter in the relationship.
Jean-Michel was obsessed with Andy.
Obsessed with him.
He represented, um, everything that Jean-Michel wanted.
But when they started doing those paintings, Basquiat was 24, 25, I mean, he was you know how young that is? I mean And to have this kind of god-like figure showing him attention [camera clicks and whirs.]
The relationship between Andy and Basquiat is one that's certainly complicated and a lot of people talk about different power dynamics.
Warhol certainly was privileged as a white male in the United States and so, he couldn't understand the systemic racism that somebody like Basquiat had to deal with during his life.
I think that, at the end of the day, these were two smart, talented artists, who understood the dynamics of the relationship.
The one exception I would draw to is the fact that Andy became Jean-Michel's landlord.
It's one thing to have a friendship and have competitiveness as artists but when you are someone's landlord, that does create a power dynamic and a tension in a relationship that could become problematic.
[AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel is going to rent the carriage house that we own at 57 Great Jones.
So, Benjamin went to get the lease, and I hope it works out.
He's a drug addict, so, he's not dependable.
I think it is possible to hold two opposing views at the same time.
- What's your last name, sweetheart? - Basquiat.
I thought it was Sweetheart.
There's a lot of affection there, even though in the diaries and other places, he says horrible things about Basquiat.
[soft atmospheric music playing.]
[Wilfredo Rosado.]
I never experienced Andy to be someone who would judge someone by the color of their skin.
You can look at me, for example.
So, he chose a Puerto Rican kid, who came from an urban environment, and decided that he was going to give me amazing opportunities at Interview.
So, if someone was reading the diaries today [sighs.]
You know, it was different times.
I think, you know, people spoke differently.
I, for one, would have never tolerated anyone who was a racist.
You know, I know for a fact that I never witnessed that from Andy.
It's hard to know what Warhol's attitudes were toward people of color.
[director.]
There is language in the diaries that is insensitive and racist.
He comes from a time that, you know, had a perception of Black people as others or stereotypes.
Was that a generational thing? You know, it's complicated.
His use of language does reveal something about I think, a certain generational side of Warhol, and a fear, maybe, fear of the other.
[atmospheric music continues.]
Well Andy, I think, had a fear.
His brothers told me that in Pittsburgh, the Black ghetto was next to the Slavic ghetto, and, you know, there apparently was tension.
[speaking Ruthenian.]
[woman.]
What are you gonna get from there? [speaking Ruthenian.]
[camera clicks and whirs.]
[director.]
For Andy, who's born in 1928 and lives through the civil rights movement, can you help us understand the culture when they start collaborating? You know, what happens in the '80s is really the fruit of the civil rights movement.
These doors that have been shut down by, you know, Jim Crow segregation, you know, Black people actually having some agency and autonomy within pop culture, within media.
Every week, there's a new breakthrough, in terms of Black presence in culture.
You know, people that were impossible to even imagine before the '80s.
There's no question, they're the breaking wave.
That's a "storming the gates" moment.
Check this out.
[Greg Tate.]
Stuff was really starting to get mixed up in a really powerful way.
[Glenn Ligon.]
I think they probably both thought of each other as outsiders.
But if you only know famous Black people, that's a very different take on the world, than if you know, like, regular Black folks, you know.
And my sense is that Andy knew the famous ones.
So, there was a limit to his knowledge.
If you're hanging out with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, that's a slice of Black America, that's not all of it.
[AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel wanted to go to the Jermaine Jackson party at Limelight, so, we went down there.
And it was one of those parties, where the bouncers were all Mafia-type guys who didn't know anybody.
Jean-Michel took us to the wrong section, and they told us to beat it.
And he said, "Now you see how it is to be Black.
" So, yeah, in some ways, Jean-Michel has to educate Andy around what it means to be a young, Black man in New York in the '80s.
That's not a reality, I don't think, that Warhol knew anything about, you know.
Hashtag, no days off for Black people.
[AI Andy.]
Talked to Jean-Michel and he said he was straight, but he sounded like he was on something.
[David LaChapelle.]
The difference between him and Jean-Michel, Andy had had ups and downs in his career.
He had this whole family around him at Interview Magazine and all these people every day to go to work [camera clicks and whirs.]
So when that New York Times review came out, it really took a toll.
Their friendship it was like they'd committed a crime.
They couldn't almost be seen together.
It was embarrassing.
[AI Andy.]
Jean-Michel hasn't called me in a month.
He used to call me all the time from wherever he was.
I don't know.
I think this whole period is over with him coming to paint.
I guess he's slowly breaking away.
So, I guess it's really over.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
He was devastated.
He'd say, "Paige, just call Jean-Michel up and have him to dinner.
" And I'd go, "I don't want to call him," because I wasn't dating him anymore, and he goes, "Oh, just call up.
" And I said, "Why are you doing that? Why are you trying to hurt yourself? He left you.
" [Futura.]
You know, I look at the '80s really as almost like a half decade for me.
It pretty much ends in '85 in a way.
People were still hanging on, selling "graffiti art," but after a few years it was kind of played out.
Andy's career had already been set in stone.
Jean and Keith were certainly rising, and Jean more than anyone.
[Kenny Scharf.]
The scene was lots of fun and excitement until Jean started getting famous, because that introduced money.
See, before that, we had all these dreams of fame and fortune and all that stuff, but we were all the same level, nobody had money.
And then, all of a sudden, you know, "Oh shit, this is real money.
" So, it changed the whole atmosphere of "all for each other" and "art for art" to "Fuck, I better get on that money train or I'm gonna miss out.
" And it wasn't so fun anymore, and then of course, you had that and then you had AIDS.
So, the combination pretty much put a kibosh on that fun and excitement that was taking place.
Actually, it's really horrible Klaus has AIDS now.
I haven't even seen him for months.
[friend.]
I think he's getting better.
[Keith Haring.]
Yeah, but I don't think you get better from AIDS.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
As you look back on it now, I think that people know things before they know things.
And I think that we all knew, particularly the gay men and women of that time, that maybe this was the very last moment of an era that would never come back again.
And the way it affected everybody was this sort of exuberance of living life to the fullest, with no holds barred.
If I could go anywhere, anytime, in a time machine, and experience life, you'd be hard-pressed to beat that time and place.
It was like a dream sequence.
[AI Andy.]
"I could never really describe the Diana Ross concert in Central Park.
" [Rob Lowe.]
I arrived in New York about two nights ago.
I'm gonna see Diana Ross tonight.
[TV presenter 4.]
None other than Diana Ross will perform live in a free concert in a little patch of green known as Central Park.
[AI Andy.]
Jon was working with Barry Diller to organize and produce it.
Paramount got the film rights.
[crowd cheering.]
[director.]
To what extent was Jon producing that and it was a big moment for him? He sort of was the visionary on all the levels.
Who came, how it happened, he was amazing.
[dreamy music playing.]
I think Andy loved it.
The crowd, Central Park, the whole thing is very cinematic.
[crowd cheering.]
[AI Andy.]
It was the most exciting thing I've ever seen.
The event of the century.
[crowd cheering.]
We were in the VIP area and Rob Lowe was with us.
And he's so beautiful, it's like his eyebrows are painted on.
And his lips painted on.
Everything so perfect.
[Benjamin Liu.]
Rob Lowe showed up in a tank top.
I think we all kind of gagged and melted.
- [dreamy music continues.]
- [crowd cheers.]
[AI Andy.]
The sky darkened and the rain came, and it was the most incredible thing I've ever seen.
[Diana Ross.]
It was the most incredible moment in my life, because it was actually a beautiful day when we started.
And I saw myself look up and the sky started to gray and I could feel something coming at me.
[Jane Mitchell.]
Diana Ross told her audience it was their powerful energy which broke open the clouds and sent down the rain.
[crowd cheers.]
[AI Andy.]
It was like the greatest scene from a movie ever.
[Benjamin Liu.]
"It was like the greatest scene from a movie ever.
" Maybe Andy saw that movie too many times.
Mahogany.
- [dreamy music intensifies.]
- [applause.]
Success is nothing without someone you love to share it with.
[AI Andy.]
But it was like a dream like a hallucination, watching this spectacle.
[TV presenter 5.]
Diana, with her arms outstretched against the darkening sky, her face upturned in driving sheets of rain, why, she looked like some fantastic sorceress in a fairy tale.
- [piano music playing.]
- [crowd cheering.]
[AI Andy.]
Before I was shot, I always thought I was more half there than all there.
I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life.
People say that the way things happen in movies isn't real.
But actually, it's the way things happen in life that's not real.
Movies make emotions look so strong.
Whereas when things actually do happen to you, it's like watching TV.
You don't feel anything.
Right when I was being shot, and ever since, I knew that I was watching television.
The channels switch, but it's all television.
Are these little things still working? Just thought I'd make you feel at home.
- [Diana Ross screams and laughs.]
- [Audience cheers and laughs.]
Oh, man.
[Johnny Carson.]
We have everything.
Rain, snow back there, lightning.
[piano music slows.]
[AI Andy.]
And I felt so sorry for Jon because he's worked so hard on this.
[crowd cheering.]
But they stopped it in the middle of the storm.
She was crying.
And then finally, people were leaving the park.
[hubbub and chatter.]
We wound up coming out at 72nd Street near the Dakota.
It was like being in a war zone.
[easy listening jazz music playing.]
And then after we got out of the park, I took Rob Lowe and Benjamin to Café Central.
I said all the stars go there, Matt Dillon and Sean Penn.
And then we got there and had drinks, and absolutely nobody was there.
[jazz music continues.]
And at the party at the Gulf and Western Building, I gave Diana Ross a diamond painting.
She was looking at tapes of the concert.
[Diana Ross on tape.]
It's raining on my playing over here.
[AI Andy.]
Barry Diller came over and I told him the concert was so great.
And he said, "You've always liked disasters.
You liked Grease 2.
" Harvey Mann, who works for Liz Smith, was there and he was asking me if I'd heard anything more about Calvin and AIDS.
He said that they'd killed the rumor in their column.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
Calvin Klein, unfortunately, was the poster boy for AIDS gossip.
Everybody pushed everything onto poor Calvin, and he defied everyone's gossip and lived.
But because everyone knew about Calvin Klein's sex life, everyone wanted to know, "Has Calvin got AIDS?" Calvin's stock went down at one point because of the rumor, "Oh, Calvin has AIDS.
" [organ music playing.]
[Calvin Klein.]
So, I'd become successful financially.
I'd become pretty well-known at a fairly young age, and, uh, I'm happy.
I mean, what could be better? You know, that is the American Dream, you know, you have it all.
[AI Andy.]
And then Calvin came in and he kissed me so hard and his beard was stubbly.
And I was so afraid that it was piercing into my pimple, and being like a needle and giving me AIDS.
So, if I'm gone in three years [Benjamin Liu.]
"And I was so afraid that it was piercing into my pimple, and being like a needle giving me AIDS.
So, if I'm gone in three years" Hmm.
Scientists at the National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta today released [Benjamin Liu.]
The gay cancer, or AIDS, happened so rapidly, and there were so many unknowns and so many people died.
And there was no cure in sight, and there's still no cure by the way.
I think Andy is genuinely uneasy.
Because, you know, you had to remember, he had gone through a lot.
He had literally died on the operating table and revived.
I mean, he made a deal with God so to speak.
[poignant music continues.]
It it makes me kind of I'm crossing my eyebrows, um, and I'm not emotional, but I just get um, I kind of go hmm.
Critics that wrote about the Diaries when it first came out, and they all said it was so glossy on the surface, but they don't know how to read it, I think.
Um, in answer to the critics, they just don't know how to read it.
People read the Diaries for many different reasons.
An art historian reads it to get some clues, right? A social person reads it to make sure that their name is in there.
If you read between the lines, I mean it's poignant, you know, that's what I got out of it when I read it, yeah.
It's not so surface.
- [nature sounds.]
- [jaunty piano music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
Got up early.
The New York Times had a big article about gay cancer and how they don't know what to do with it.
That it's epidemic proportions.
Went out with Chris who'd just gotten his clean, negative results back on his gay cancer tests.
And I couldn't work with Jon, because he had to go to a gay cancer funeral at Paramount.
It was a secretary there, a male secretary.
And the Post today had the headline, "Fashion Designer Dies of AIDS," But it wasn't Calvin.
And Robert Hayes is now in the hospital with pneumonia.
He came in for a business lunch once.
And I asked why he had round little bandages on and they said he'd just had moles removed.
And that sounded reasonable.
I don't think he has what he's afraid he has.
I think he's just rundown and scared.
I mean, I don't think you can catch it that easily.
[Bob Colacello.]
Robert Hayes, who succeeded me as editor, went very, very quickly.
And it was horrifying what had happened to him in a matter of a few months, with pneumonia, with Kaposi, with it was just terrifying.
[AI Andy.]
And I had to call Doc Cox's office to find out the results of my tests.
[atmospheric music playing.]
So finally, I braced myself and decided to be brave.
And that if it was anything horrible, I'd just take it in stride.
[suspenseful music.]
So, I called.
And they said nothing was wrong.
So I hung up, feeling that health sure was wealth.
[poignant piano music playing.]
Did a personal errand with Jon.
[traffic sounds.]
But he made me promise not to put anything personal about him in the diary.
[poignant piano music continues.]
[Jessica Beck.]
I think the editor's notes are fascinating, 'cause there really are only a handful, and it's a real intentional move on Pat Hackett's part to put that in, otherwise, no one would know.
[Jay Gould.]
He called me one day and said he had pneumonia.
He said, "I want you to come see me, I'm in the hospital.
" He said, "Well, I have something wrong with my immune system also.
" [poignant piano music continues.]
- [director.]
Was Andy ever at the hospital? - Mm-hmm, yep.
[Jay Gould.]
A nurse or a doctor came in, and I started chatting with Andy, and he said, "I don't like hospitals, I have a hernia, but I'm not getting it fixed because I really have a fear of hospitals.
" [chatter.]
- [camera clicks and whirs.]
- [heart rate monitor beeping.]
[soft piano music playing.]
[Jessica Beck.]
To go to this place that was all about a trigger of a past trauma for him, and to stay there by his bedside when he's sick, is, I think, just a full expression of how much he cared about Jon.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
I mean, it's out of character for him.
Andy never liked to deal with sickness.
But, you know, he loved Jon, so, if you love somebody, you do things that you might not normally do.
[soft piano music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
Got home and was really tired.
Watched TV.
Took a Valium.
I was depressed because Jon is so aloof.
He says he needs to be his own person.
And I always feel like he's just about to leave.
So, I never can feel relaxed.
[traffic sounds.]
[Katy Dobbs.]
Jon was equating being sick with New York, and New York was this epicenter and he wanted away from it.
He wanted away from it.
[soft piano music continues.]
[ambulance siren wailing.]
[Katy Dobbs.]
He just got crazy about getting to L.
A.
He just felt he would be healthy there and he could get a new start.
And a lot of the doctors he wanted to work with were out there.
Our weather out here is easy.
You're near the ocean, the water's incredibly healing.
[beach sounds.]
There's a lot of people that are very interested in metaphysical stuff and meditation and Buddhism and doing all these different kinds of things.
Sometimes people will come here because it's a great environment for you to embrace that kind of lifestyle.
[Shirley Maclaine.]
I think this New Age approach to making your life better is saying that you can create a more positive reality and not have to learn through suffering.
- I don't see why she must have this pain.
- Ma'am, it's not my patient.
It's time for her shot.
Do something.
My daughter is in pain! Give her the shot! Do you understand me? - You're going to behave.
- Give my daughter the shot! [AI Andy.]
Jon interviewed Shirley MacLaine for the cover of Interview's health issue.
He's transcribing it himself, so he can edit it.
[camera clicks and whirs.]
Andy came in to Interview one time and said, "We're gonna do a whole issue of health.
" Which was all of this crazy, you know, half-baked stuff.
[AI Andy.]
I'm going to go to a doctor who puts crystals on you, and it gives you energy.
Jon's gotten interested in that kind of stuff.
He says it gives you power.
And I think it sounds like a good thing to be doing.
Health is wealth.
[Marc Balet.]
The whole crystal thing I never got, but obviously, people were dying left and right around us.
You know, it affected everybody.
[Jay Gould.]
He tried a lot of alternative treatments.
He would do certain exercises anything he could think of to try and heal himself.
[AI Andy.]
Now that Jon is working in Los Angeles most of the time, he's buying a house in Beverly Hills.
Almost immediately, Jon left for L.
A.
He moved very quickly to Los Angeles.
[soft piano music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
Stayed up all night getting ready for the next day, to go to California.
Went out driving.
Took a lot of pictures on Melrose.
You know what's fascinating, is that Hollywood is still filled with all these delicate ladies, who look like they were beauties, all glued up and in their cars, driving around.
And you wonder what star they were what roles they had.
Jon invited me to breakfast at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
It was a gray day, but we ate outside anyway.
They put heaters all around you, so you don't know it's cold.
And we didn't talk much about his new life.
[piano music continues.]
[Katy Dobbs.]
I remember saying to Jon at his house, "What does Andy think?" And he went, "He hasn't been here.
" And I went, "Oh.
" You know, like, "So this is a break.
" [AI Andy.]
And then went back to the hotel with Pat, who was keeping me company because I was depressed.
He never gave me keys to his new house.
So, I guess I'll never be staying there.
[waves crashing.]
I guess he didn't want to be linked with me in L.
A.
I mean, you know somebody, they are living in your house, and then suddenly they don't know you anymore.
[piano music intensifies.]
Oh, I don't know.
Life is interesting, I guess.
Called Jean-Michel in L.
A.
But he was either distant or he was high.
I told him I missed him a lot.
And he said no stars had been at his opening, and he said Jon Gould had been there, but he wouldn't talk to me about him for some reason.
[seagulls calling and waves crashing.]
[Jay Gould.]
At first, I had a lot of hope, but he was in rough shape.
He got really skinny, lesions.
It was it was bad.
[poignant piano music playing.]
Eventually, we had to tell my parents.
[Katy Dobbs.]
I went with his parents to L.
A.
That was a really tough trip.
[poignant piano music continues.]
I remember I was pregnant, and Jon did some weird crystal stuff on my stomach, and he said, um, "Maybe your baby and I will meet [voice wavering.]
as we change places.
" [piano music increases tempo.]
But it was such a long, horrible death too.
Um [choking up.]
He was rare.
He was a rare bird.
And I think he could have been everything he wanted to be.
- [voice.]
Jonny! - [Jon laughs.]
[piano music continues.]
[AI Andy.]
Kenny Scharf called.
There was a party for his wife Tereza's birthday in the park, near the bridge to get across the lake.
[camera whirring.]
Not too many people were there.
But in a few minutes, suddenly everybody arrived.
[camera shuttering.]
And the diary can write itself on the other news from L.
A.
, which I don't want to talk about.
[Jessica Beck.]
Pat Hackett's editor's note is devastating.
The note reads: "Jon Gould died on September 18th at age 33 after 'an extended illness.
' He was down to 70 pounds and he was blind.
He denied even to close friends that he had AIDS.
" [Jay Gould.]
It bothered me that dying of AIDS, that was the story, when there was this great story over here about him.
[poignant piano music playing.]
[Kenny Scharf.]
That was another one of those things where Jon just went away, like, he went to California and didn't come back.
I don't believe in death because I think they've gone to California and, uh, they'll be back soon.
[soft atmospheric music playing.]
[AI Andy.]
I wish I were 20 and could go through all this again.
But I never want to go through anything or anybody in my whole life.
Oh, I don't know.
I guess I missed out a lot on life.
[traffic sounds.]
Never pick-ups out on the street or anything like that.
I feel life has passed me by.
[poignant atmospheric music continues.]
I watched The NeverEnding Story.
[laughs.]
[AI Andy.]
This movie my God it affected me so much.
- [Gmork growls.]
- [Atreyu.]
I will not die easily.
I am a warrior.
[scoffs.]
Brave warrior.
Then fight the Nothing.
What is the Nothing?! It's the emptiness that's left.
It is like a despair, destroying this world.
And I have been trying to help it.
But why?! [atmospheric music continues.]
[AI Andy.]
The Nothingness is taking over the planet.
It's sort of my philosophy.
Looking for Nothingness.
[Andy.]
It's too hard to care for this art.
Well, I care, I still care, but I mean, it would be so much easier not to care.
Don't want to get too involved.
[atmospheric music intensifies.]
[AI Andy.]
Cabbed to the crystal doctor.
And this time it was a real experience.
He had me lie down on his table and close my eyes.
He said I have some negative powers in me, and he would touch me here and there.
And when I wouldn't have any reaction, he said I wasn't in touch with my pain.
[crashing and growling.]
And that I would have to become sensitive to it.
[strong winds and crashing.]
[Gmork roars.]
[AI Andy.]
The session was like an exorcism.
[atmospheric music continues.]
[grunts.]
I don't know if these crystals work.
But I've got to believe in something.
[atmospheric music grows softer.]
Because things could always be worse.
[soft instrumental piano music playing.]